


Lessons in Love

by Ramza



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/M, Friendship/Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:15:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26125603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ramza/pseuds/Ramza
Summary: Jaune asks Ruby for help. He has fallen in love with a girl - not Weiss or Pyrrha or anyone she knows, definitely not - and he needs and wants help with that. He is desperate. So they meet in the library, just the two of them.
Relationships: Jaune Arc/Ruby Rose
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	Lessons in Love

Jaune walked over instead of running, respecting the rules of the library, but he had clearly run here and, surely, had been training as well not long before, since his chest was rising and falling to the rhythm of his agitated breathing. Ruby squirmed in the chair, uncomfortable.

Or not. She hoped it wasn't about anything too serious.

It probably wasn't, because then he wouldn't have thought of her first, as much as that fact irritated her; she was sick of being treated like a child when it suited people. Still, she assumed it was technically possible that this was serious and hoped she wouldn't embarrass herself.

Jaune took a seat right in front of her.

“Thank you for coming," he said.

“Well, that's what friends are for, right?" she replied with a nervous chuckle. “What's this about?”

“Well... I'm in love with someone and I'd like..., if you don't mind, a hand.”

Ah, as she had feared. It was something serious, although not really serious, serious. What made him think that she could help him with that?

He probably hadn't thought much about it. Jaune was very smart and also very dumb, sometimes.

“Jaune, I have no idea how to help you go out with Weiss. No one does.”

“What? Oh, no, no, no. I'm not talking about Weiss. I got the message, I'm going to leave her alone. Finally. And I think everyone is going to be happier with my decision.”

That was for sure. But what could Ruby say to that without offending him, no matter what she said?

She resorted to the optimal strategy, besides being silent.

That's right, changing the subject.

“That's... good.” This was so uncomfortable. “So, who? Do I know her? I guess I know her, right? If not, why would you have asked me? Pyrrha? Is it Pyrrha?”

Jaune covered his mouth to stifle a laugh.

"You say the funniest things, Crater Face." Ruby glared at him. Jaune, as with so many other things, didn't seem to notice that. "Pyrrha and I are just friends. And even if I was interested... Speaking hypothetically, of course, don't think you've busted me, that would be more impossible than my thing with Weiss. No. It's not Pyrrha.”

Personally, she believed that if Pyrrha was the candidate, Jaune wouldn't have to do anything to woo her. But well. She would keep her opinion to herself, why complicate things unnecessarily?

"Before you say anything, it's not Nora, Blake or your big sister." He blushed as he said it, which made him look very suspicious. Ruby tried to imagine Jaune and Yang kissing. It didn't make her feel good, and she was pretty sure that even though the boy might have a chance, that relationship would end in disaster. A flaming disaster. She kept that opinion to herself, too. She knew how to be diplomatic. "I'm not going to tell you who she is."

"So how do you want me to help you?”

“Well, I thought since you are a girl and in theory you know girls... I want - I want a female perspective on the issue. And I couldn't have asked Nora, Yang would have tried to kill me and Blake... It would be too embarrassing.”

Yang would have tried to kill him? What did he mean by that?

She got it not much later. First Yang would assume that he was trying to hit on her, not being very subtle, and then, assuming he could convince her that she was wrong, Yang would assume that he was going after Ruby instead and would try to kill him. That's what he was thinking.

Maybe he was exaggerating a bit, but she could see why Jaune would think that asking her older sister something like that was a danger to his health.

He was a bit of a scaredy cat, too.

But whatever, there was something more important in there. Ruby crossed her arms under her chest, glared at him again.

Ruby crossed her arms under her chest, glared at him again.

“Wow, so I'm your last choice. So why I should help you again?"

“I didn't mean that," he said, waving his hands as if to deflect her anger. “You were my first and only choice. Who else could I talk to about this? You are my best friend for a reason.”

“Okay, you made that sound good, saved it. I forgive you. But... I don't know what to tell you.”

“Well, you're a girl,” he repeated, like that was answer enough. “For example, if I boy were to approach you, how would you like him to do that?”

“I don't know. I don't really understand all of it, first of all," she replied, leaning back in her chair, resting her boots on the edge of the table. An illusorily precarious balance, but easy for a huntress to maintain. “I mean, look, I love you and I would do just about anything for you. I've hugged you not few times and kissed you once, I think.”

“I'm following you so far. More or less. I think.”

“So, what makes us friends and not boyfriend and girlfriend?"

“You kissed me on the cheek, Ruby. That's different.”

“Yes, that's what I was getting at.” She let the chair fall and stood up. When her mind was active, her body was active, she couldn't stand still. Which was true all the time. But it was worse at times like this. She moved along the length of the table, up and down. “The difference is in the, uh, the fleshy stuff. That's what you just told me. So being someone's boyfriend is like giving them permission to felt you up, period.”

“I can't believe you said that.” Poor Jaune was red as a tomato.

Did he think she was twelve instead of fifteen, or had he forgotten what he had been like when he was fifteen? She knew about that, she wasn't stupid. And she had as much trouble... having fun on her own, thanks to the fact that she shared her room with three people, one of them her sister, as Jaune no doubt would have and any other boy or girl at Beacon, now and forever.

She wasn't quite so innocent. No one could be.

Like everyone else, she was growing up, getting older, whether she wanted to or not. And...

And she couldn't get this out of her head.

“As I was saying, having a boyfriend is like having a best friend who you occasionally have to let stick your hand down your shirt or under your skirt ,” she repeated, getting more explicit just to mess with Jaune. “So why all the headaches? What's the point? Better not to take the plunge.”

“Wow. That's a surprisingly cynical view of love. Is it that perhaps...” He slammed his mouth shut.

“What?”

-Nothing. It would have been stupid and rude, except that, for once, I managed to stop myself before eating my foot. So forget I said... Forget I was going to say anything. Please."

"No, eat it up, don't worry. I can imagine what you were going to say."

Ruby dropped on the chair, again.

"Well... It just seems like the kind of thing someone whose parents don't get along too well would say. That's it. I said it now."

"My parents got along very well. I said got along because my mother... -Ruby took a deep breath. Whenever she thought about it or talked about it, she felt a twinge of pain in the depths of her heart and had to stop at times, as if each time the tragedy took her by surprise. "My mother died when I was very young."

"Oh, Ruby, I'm so sorry. See? I'm a complete idiot."

“Don't worry. I told you to continue and I was right about what you were going to say. It hurts, but it happened a long time ago. I have... got used to it, more or less. But let's get on with it. My parents loved each other very much. I know, I've always known that. I didn't need to see them in bed for that, though. So I really don't get it.”

“I don't have much experience myself.” He grimaced. No good experience, at least. “But... you understand why someone would want to start a family, don't you? Enjoy the happiness your parents shared?”

“Yes, of course.”

-So... you can have many best friends, but it's a very different thing to want to have a family with him. Or her. Spend the rest of your lives together and all that.

“And that makes a lot of sense, but there are a lot of couples who don't intend to have children. Naturally or by adopting. So I'm right, that's what it all comes down to, no? I don't want to think like that. It's like I'm doubting my parents. But I can't convince myself otherwise. I don't know what I'm missing... And I'm sorry that we're only talking about me. This is about you. Let's leave it at that.”

“No, Ruby," Jaune answered softly. He was always so kind.

“Come on, let's stop, really.”

“Ruby. When we talk about you, we're talking about me.”

She thought about it for a moment. “I don’t follow.”

“It's just that you're making me doubt myself.”

“Well, I'm very sorry.” She leaned forward, crossing her arms on the table. “When you got here, what made you stick to Weiss like a limpet?”

“You could have put it more nicely.”

“Sorry, Vomit Boy. But seriously, what?”

“Well... She's very pretty.”

“Aha! That means I'm right.”

“Yes, but no. I already knew her before Beacon. Well, I didn't know her exactly, but I saw her up close. I went to one of the few concerts she gave with my family, I heard her sing and she seemed terribly lonely. Abandoned. I thought... I guess I thought I could fill that void. God, I sound like a total moron.

Anyway, you know. I came here with my head full of stories about heroes, my family's, others. And I guess I was looking for my damsel in distress. Yeah, total moron, like I said. I give you permission to slap me.”

Ruby shrugged her shoulders, lifted her ass out of the chair a bit and struck him across the face with an open hand.

“I didn't think you were going to give me a real one. Or hit that hard.”

“I did it for fun and I didn't hit you that hard either. Don't whine so much.”

“You're starting to sound like Yang," Jaune said, stroking his red cheek. “Now I see the family resemblance.”

“You know what? I think if you had told Weiss all that, instead of the little songs and love letters and generic confessions, one after another, you'd be dating her right now.”

“You think?”

“I just told you. Weiss is a sensitive girl, deep down. Even though she looks and acts like a tyrant half the time.”

Ruby looked at his face, looking for signs that she had fanned his desire to go after Weiss like a fool, condemning him to more disappointment and pain - she had been entirely honest with him, she also sincerely believed that it was now too late to make amends - but she didn't see anything like that on his face. No renewed hope, no bitter regret for what might have been.

He just seemed pensive.

Good. This was going better than she had thought.

Although she had made more than half of the conversation actually about herself so far, she could have screwed up in much worse ways.

Optimism was important.

“People get together when they need each other," Ruby said. “That makes a lot of sense too, I understand that, but? I don't even know how to say it. But it just all seems so... That's the problem with not reading much. Not much beyond comics and weapon manuals and magazines, anyways. I can't find the words I'm looking for, especially when I need them the most.”

“You want something more," Jaune said, after a while.

“Yes, that's a good way of putting it. I want... I want what my parents had, although I have no idea how they got there, although it seems impossible, a miracle.”

“That's what it's all about, Ruby," he said in a low voice. “Love is a miracle.”

“You say it so convincingly. That's also how they make it look in the stories. But usually the stories end when the longing ends. The chase. As if they don't know the answer I'm looking for either.”

“Maybe. I think love is one of those things that you can only understand when it happens to you. _If_ it happens to you. You could, you know, try it with me.”

Ruby opened her eyes wide

“With you? What about the girl... Oh, you meant me. All this time.”

“Yes.”

“Why me?”

“Because I need you, Ruby.” For some reason, her heart began to beat faster. “All this time you've been by my side. Supporting me, leading me down the right path. Making me feel better. I've been your damsel in distress and... I don't know about you, but I don't think I could find anyone better, even if I spent the rest of my life looking for it. I love you and it has nothing to do with the dirty stuff that every teenager is thinking about most of the time. Although you are very cute. And kind of sexy in your combat outfit... I should shut up now.”

A prolonged silence. Ruby got up from her chair, again, walked over to him, circling the table.

“I'm glad you learned to be eloquent this late.”

Jaune stood up. “That means...?”

“Yes," she answered, placing her hands on his shoulders. “That you have permission to felt me up. Go ahead.”

Jaune laughed softly.

“You are the bee’s knees.”

Jaune and Ruby kissed, and she closed her eyes as she pressed herself against him, as she had seen in so many stories, so many movies. His lips were soft and warm. His body was hard, firm. And in that contact there was...

Maybe not a miracle, but that something _more_.


End file.
